AT&T Offers To Discuss Settlement With Man Who Won Throttling Lawsuit

UPDATE: While both the AP and CNET reported that the letter from AT&T’s lawyer “threatened to shut off his service if he didn’t sit down and talk with them,” AT&T has reached out to Consumerist to clarify that the letter only threatens to terminate the customer’s service only if he signed the nondisclosure agreement and then violated the terms of that agreement. We have subsequently confirmed this with a source who has seen a copy of the letter.
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The man says it all began when he contacted AT&T’s legal department to find out how he could get the $850 the small claims court judge had awarded him.

Then came a letter from a law firm representing the company. They wanted to discuss possible settlement terms with him, but only if he’d sign a nondisclosure agreement. If he violated the terms of that agreement, then the lawyers said his service could be turned off.

A rep for AT&T confirmed the company had been in contact with the man.

“[He] reached out to us to initiate a discussion, and naturally, we responded to him to hear what was on his mind and discuss his data usage,” a spokesthing for the company tells CNET, before changing the topic to the fact that the man violated his terms of service by using his iPhone to allow Internet access to a second device.

The AT&T customer says he and his lawyer opted against signing the nondisclosure, as he’s not after a bigger reward. He just wants the service he’s supposed to be getting every month.

“This isn’t really about the $850,” he told CNET. “I guess they could offer me more money. But I don’t really care about that. I just want to get the service that I’ve been paying for and that service is supposed to include unlimited data.”